Samuel Rutherford Crockett

Samuel Rutherford Crockett

Samuel Rutherford Crockett (24 September 1859 – 16 April 1914) was a Scottish novelist.

Life

Bank House, Penicuik. The property was occupied by the well known Scottish novelist Samuel Rutherford Crockett around 1886 who often had J. M. Barrie to stay.

He was born at Duchrae, Balmaghie, Kirkcudbrightshire, the illegitimate grandson of a farmer. He was raised on his grandfather's Galloway farm, and graduated from Edinburgh University during 1879.

After some years of travel, he became in 1886 minister of Penicuik. During that year he produced his first publication, Dulce Cor (Latin: Sweet Heart), a collection of verse. He eventually abandoned the Free Church ministry for novel-writing.

The success of J.M. Barrie and the Kailyard school of sentimental, homey writing had created a demand for stories in Lowland Scots, when Crockett published his successful story of The Stickit Minister during 1893. It was followed by a rapidly produced series of popular novels frequently featuring the history of Scotland or his native Galloway. Crockett made considerable sums of money from his writing and was a friend and correspondent of R. L. Stevenson.

During 1900, Crockett wrote a booklet published by the London camera manufacturer, Newman & Guardia, comparing cameras favorably to pen and pencil and explaining how he encountered the N and G advertisement.

He died in France on holiday in early 1914, and the subsequent outbreak of the First World War meant a delay in his remains being buried in his home kirkyard at Balmaghie.

Legacy

A monument to Crockett can be seen at Laurieston, near Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire. His papers are held by Edinburgh University. A biography of S.R. Crockett was published in 1991, by Dr. Islay Donaldson.

Works

Caricature of author Samuel Rutherford Crockett from the Aug. 5, 1897, issue of Vanity Fair

• The Raiders, 1894
• The Lilac Sun-bonnet, D. Appleton and company, 1895
• Mad Sir Uchtred (1894)
• The Men of the Moss Hags (1895)
• Sweetheart Travellers, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1895
• Cleg Kelly and The Grey Man (1896)
• The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion (1897)
• The Red Axe (1898)
• The Black Douglas, Doubleday & McClure co., 1899
• Kit Kennedy (1899)
• Joan of the Sword Hand, American News, 1900
• Little Anna Mark in 1900
• Cinderella: a novel, James Clarke & Co., 1901
• The silver skull, Smith, Elder, 1901
• Flower o' the Corn (1902)
• Red Cap Tales, Adam and Charles Black, 1904
• Raiderland, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1904
• Maid Margaret (1905)
• The Adventurer in Spain Ibister and Co., Ltd., 1903 (non-fiction)
• The white plumes of Navarre, Religious Tract Society, 1906
• Red Cap Adventures (1908)
• Silver Sand (1914)

Notes

The Raiders concerns the historical Gypsy leader John Faa, who much later becomes a character in His Dark Materials.

References

Attribution

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crockett, Samuel Rutherford". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Sources

• Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 88. 

External links

• Works by Samuel Rutherford Crockett at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Samuel Rutherford Crockett at Internet Archive
• "Samuel Rutherford Crockett", Dumfries and Galloway